Discovering Self Mill (Article)

[Coffee Vampire]

So I downloaded Cockatrice today. It is the best thing ever. I basically spent the rest of the day testing my mono black deck while learning the hotkeys.

On Cockatrice (in standard), there seemed to be quite a bit of WRR (wolf-run ramp) and BGW delver. So yeah. Seen one seen em all. But there was one deck I played against that I thought was really cool. It was some kind of self mill deck that utilized {Consecrated Sphinx} and also */* creatures that relate to your hand. It really messes with you once it gets going. Complete with {Griselbrand} + {Unburial Rites}, it has great synergy and can really take you by surprise and kill you before you knew what the hell was going on.

I realized this when I lost the first game. I got a {Phyrexian Obliterator} out turn 4 and tried some other things, but he still destroyed me. I was glad he wanted to play game 2, because my deck loves to sideboard...and I wanted to see my opponent's awesome deck perform again!

I sided out all my {Duress}, all my {Ravenous Rats}, and all my {Horrifying Revelation} (I didn't want to help him mill himself!). In came more {Despise}, the lovable {Shimian Specter}, {Mutilate}, {Black Sun's Zenith}, and the almighty {Staff of Nin}. I may have missed some things but whatever.

Turn 1 I played {Despise}. I was discoraged to see three fatties: {Psycotic Crawler}, {Drogskol Reaver}, and this other */* creature (equal to cards in hand). I knew they would hit the battlefield soon. I was also daunted by a {Mimic Vat} and an artifact that made him gain life equal to cards in hand every upkeep. I knew I needed to be careful for this one. I made him discard the reaver.

He played the mimic vat early on. I knew I would soon be facing constant heat. Turn 4 I pulled off a {Shimian Specter}, which I was more happy to see than a {Phyrexian Obliterator}. I had {Liliana of the Veil} out, and the board was clear. I kept exiling his stuff with the specter, and he kept doing weird things to me with his graveyard, and casting weird creatures. The damage from the specter was soon useless, because of 2 {Pristine Talisman}s he had out.

Eventually, he got 2 {Griselbrand}s in his graveyard, while I had a {Staff of Nin} out. I got it out right when I was starting to run out of steam, which I appreciated. By this time he had a fatty mimiced to the vat and a {Consecrated Sphinx} on the battlefield. And a random looking {Birds of Paradise} It was my turn. His exile and graveyard stacks were growing, and I had not seen a single rites. He had a sphinx out, and on my draw step he drew cards. I promptly killed his birds with y staff of nin, {Go For the Throat}ed his sphinx, and swung with my specter. One of the cards in his hand was a rites, and I happily sent all 4 in his deck to exile.

Next turn I drew a {Lashwrithe}, which I equipped to my {Inkmoth Nexus}. I had 7 lands out, so that won me the game in 2 turns. I was going to ask the dude if his deck did well at FNM, but he left the lobby.

So anyways, what can we learn from this?

- {Shimian Specter} can save yo ass
- {Staff of Nin} can save yo ass
- A singleton {Inkmoth Nexus} is a good choice for mono black control
- Mono black cotrol will be dead in october.
- There are self mill decks that do not involve {Goultree} and {Splinterfright}, and they are cool.

Oh yeah, also I want to say that mainboarding 4 {Surgical Extraction} was a great decision.

I hope you enjoyed my article that was more like a game description. Peace out.

[AgrusKos]

Lol

[Cindjor]

That deck sounds awesome. I like playing weird and different but effective decks. Cockatrice does have a ton of delver decks. Haha and your MBC sounds sweet too. Did you post it on here?

[Thorn]

Yeah coffee posted it here and creamed me.

[Mikefrompluto]

I actually played a BG deck similar to this last night on Cockatrice. He set up {rites of flourishing} and a couple others (forgot what) and I was milling 16 cards each turn. Luckily I was able to get three {blood artist}s out along with {endless ranks of the dead} for 30 zombie tokens  and then finish with a {killing wave} combo.

[BlackJester]

Yeah coffee posted it here and creamed me.

What?  No sugar?      XD

[Thorn]

Yeah coffee posted it here and creamed me.

What?  No sugar?      XD

Oh tge funny jester strikes again.